This Is My Curse - SwanQueen
by Saskwatche
Summary: Alternate universe. Regina's the reigning monarch of a kingdom with a dark and bloody history. Emma's a young girl raised by a family of Hunters that has a hatred for the monsters roaming this earth. They both despise each other's lineage, but is that enough to not see the beings they have in front of them? WARNING: bloody, dark, gorey and probably smutty too.


**Edited version of the prologue! Notes at the end.**

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" _Princess!"_

It's a distant echo. A voice fading. She can hear it, but it seems fuzzy around the edges. Her knees buckle under her weight and she feels herself falling to the floor. She cannot stop it. Her lids are heavy and closing, but she doesn't have the strength to force them open. There are arms around her, holding her. It occurs to her that she's being cradled to a strong chest, the warmth of which a welcome invasion spreading through her freezing body.

" _Princess!"_

She still hears it, the echo of her title being called from far away. Her body jerks violently back and forth, and she's being shook, she knows that, but cannot bring herself to react. Her head rolls on her neck, and she's limp, almost dead.

" _Call for the King, the Queen, anyo-"_

It's silent after that and she can recall thinking how she didn't want Mother to see her that way. _What would Mother think of this?_ She'd woken up to the soft sounds of the birds chirping and her father stroking her hair out of her face. She'd smiled then, her senses buzzing and dulled, it'd been blissful.

"Regina." Her father had said, warmth and sadness interlacing in his voice.

He seemed worried. It made her stomach churn.

In all her life, she'd never seen her father with a look such as this… even in the midst of war he'd been confident, scared for the life he had to send to a certain death, but always sure it was for the best. But now, now he looked small and frail and so much like a coward.

She'd smiled at him nonetheless, her heart tugging with sympathy and things unknown.

"You shouldn't be out of bed sweetie. Not until you've recovered from your last attack…" He'd said and she'd frowned.

"I'm fine." She'd automatically dismissed, but her father had shook his head vehemently.

"No."

Her father had turned around, as surprised as she was to hear her mother's voice coming from the door.

"You are anything but fine, dear. This little escapade of yours almost cost you your life." The Queen had said, stern and cold as always. "If you wanna live to see your twenty-first birthday, I suggest you start taking the medicine man's advice seriously. Now I forbid you from leaving your bed unattended."

Regina had tried to contest her mother's saying, but one look at her father had sewn her mouth shut for good. Her parents had left her room then, leaving her to nothing but emptiness.

Stupid sickness. Stupid doctors. Stupid parents. What good would being alive be to her if she couldn't take two steps without crumbling to the ground? Nobody knew what she had, nobody could offer up explanations and nobody could come up with a cure. If she was to believe the rumors that still made their way to her ears, she was as good as dead. Everyone knew, but no one was willing to say it aloud. It was ushered, passed from ear to mouth, from one servant to another, until everyone knew that the poor Princess was terminally sick without hope for a better tomorrow.

She was sick of it, sick of having to spend every single day being looked after like she was some sort of porcelain doll precariously standing near the edge of a shelf. She wanted it to end.

All this nonsense had to stop.

Living like this wasn't what she wanted and if she wasn't going to get better then she was at least going to find a way out of it.

Her thoughts wandered into the darkest corners of her mind until she found the best way to finally see her life come to an end.

-/-

" _PRINCESS!"_

A scream, or maybe a whisper. She couldn't tell. Her mind was fuzzy again, her ears ringing, heart beat thumping, was it hers? She couldn't say. She could feel something sticky and hot running down her neck, coating her pale skin, but she couldn't remember what it was.

" _PRINCESS! PLEASE!"_

It sounded like her maid's voice, was it morning already? It couldn't be. She was supposed to die way before the sun rise. _THUMP THUMP._ Why hadn't this worked? She'd seen it work. It should have worked!

" _No, nonononononononono…"_

Fingers wrapped around her shoulders, hot and sticky, burning her stone cold skin. They shook her, _THUMP THUMP_ rattled her until they elicited a reaction. Her eyes opening slowly, blinking rapidly, adjusting to the brightness and finally locking with her maid's.

The Princess smiled, weakly, something tired and worn. Why did the maid look so livid? She couldn't fathom what would have her so frantic.

The hands holding onto her let go as soon as the maid realised how impossible all of this could be.

 _THUMP THUMP_

There was so much blood, the Princess was practically bathing in it. It leaked from the slit in her neck down to her chest and onto her nightgown, spreading to the bedsheets she laid on, it was horrifying.

Regina watched her servant's gaze flit from her bed to her neck and to the door, but she didn't understand, not until she finally breathed in the scent of copper permeating the stale air of the room. She looked around searching for the source of the smell, finally catching on to the red staining her linen sheets, and she remembered.

 _THUMP THUMP_

Her fingers flew to her neck, plunging into the gash that was still wide open and oozing. She gasped. It had worked. _THUMP THUMP_ She had died. How could she not be dead. How could she still be awake. With all the blood it was impossible. _THUMP THUMP_

"I-" she croaked. _THUMP THUMP_

Her maid shook her head, her gaze not leaving the girl as she backed away, making for the door. _THUMP THUMP_

"I don't-" Regina had tried to say, but as soon as her servant's back had hit the wall she'd ran for the door and opened it hurriedly.

The girl's instinct had had the best of her then.

Having her spring from her bed and running after her prey, the beating of a racing heart the only thing making sense to her. The maid had looked over her shoulder then, only to squeak at the sight of a prowling young girl. She'd ran faster then and Regina had laughed, something dark and menacing. Only picking up the pace, almost going on all fours in order to jump her opponent and have her pinned to the ground. The servant turned a corner and found herself trapped in a dead end, a locked door to her right and an ancient tapestry to her left. She was breathing hard and the sound of her heart beat made Regina's head swirl with want.

She prowled closer to the woman before her, slowly lifting her hand to grasp the elegant neck of her victim. The maid was muttering, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of her pulse beating beneath the Princess' fingers.

It made her vision go dark, all she could feel was the thumthumthumping of a very much alive human heart and the smell of fear, it made it ever so enticing.

When blood spurted into her mouth she almost moaned, it was heavenly. She ripped apart the woman's neck searching for more, drinking in all she could.

She was still attached to the dead woman's body when her mother found her, the hunger still making her a feral beast. The delighted cold laughter of her mother made her head snap up.

"Finally…" she'd said and Regina had been confused, oh so so confused.

"I've been spiking your tea with belladonna for so long now, waiting for you to give up…"

The young one got up then, heartbroken and angry. "You've what?!" she'd roared.

"I've been poisoning you with a lethal plant." Cora had said as plainly as if she'd been talking about the weather.

Regina had screamed an inhuman kind of sound then, as she'd made for her mother's chest, hoping to tear the woman's heart out. She'd been stopped in her tracks as the Queen had moved as quickly as her daughter and caught her throat in her vice like grip, holding her above ground.

"That is inacceptable behavior, dear. Turn on me and I will make sure everyone knows just how you've murdered this young peasant girl. Am I making myself clear?"

Frustrated, Regina had nodded her head, tears leaking down her cheeks, leaving behind bloody tracks. Mother had set her down then, violently. "Now go. Leave my sight." The girl had sprung to her feet in a matter of seconds and had ran and ran and ran. Until she didn't recognised her surroundings. Until she was certain no one could know who she was.

Years later there would still be posters plastered to the trees with her face on it, which could read: "Wanted for crimes against the kingdom. MURDER, TREASON, TREACHERY."

And years after that, after her father's long reign and his serene passing into the world above, she'd come back to a desolated kingdom that she would have to rebuild after murdering her heartless mother.

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 **REVIEW.**

 **Also I hope you liked that, this is what I'm going with for This Is My Curse Updated version. I will delete the other story. I don't know to which frequence I will update this story, but I'll try to do it as soon as possible :) I'll try to keep the story as close to my original work, but like I said in my AN I want to focus more on the duality of a Hunter vs. a Monster that meet without knowing about one another :P you'll see, I'll try to make it good, and probably better than what it used to be.**


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